Believe It Or Not
by Shutterbug5269
Summary: What if there was something else in that safe deposit box in Montreal? Set during the first half of Season 7. Borrows the plot of the Steven J Cannell series "The Greatest American Hero" updated with the Richard Castle in the main role. How does an every day man deal with becoming a powerful costumed superhero overnight?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

* * *

"_Look at what's happened to me,  
I can't believe it myself;  
Suddenly I'm up on top of the world,  
Should've been somebody else." _

Believe It Or Not, Performed by Joey Scarbury  
Music: Mike Post Lyrics: Stephen Geyer

* * *

**Long Island Expressway  
May 2014**

"Hey lover. How close are you?" Kate asked through his cell phone.

"Twenty minutes." Castle responded, "And you'll be happy to know things went smoothly with the judge. You are a free woman."

Kate sighed in happiness over the phone at this news, Rick knew that the last couple of days had been and emotional roller coaster for both of them, but especially Kate since she'd found out to her horror she had been married to Rogan O'Leary for the past fifteen years. Not to mention that the man had known the truth all this time and not even so much as warned her until he wanted something from her, the skeevy little bastard.

"But not for long." Rick interjected, "I've got everything squared away and will be there soon. Oh, and Kate?"

"Yeah?" Kate responded happily

"I love you." Rick said without reservation.

"I love you, too." she said back with equal conviction.

Rick smiled broadly after hanging up and set his phone back in the charger to check his hair in the rear-view mirror. As his hand moved to his scalp, he noticed a black sedan quickly getting too close to his rear bumper for comfort. He mashed his foot down on the accelerator to speed up, but the car behind him sped up up to compensate.

Without warning, the car slammed into the back of his once, but he'd blunted the impact at the last second by accelerating again, just enough for him to keep control. He cranked the wheel to veer away, but the black sedan came on again, striking the back corner of the car and he lost control, swerved hard and his car punched through the guide rail, over an embankment and down into the concrete berm of a rain culvert.

Half a second before the car hit bottom and burst into flames, his unconscious body was swathed in blue light and disappeared like he was never there.

* * *

**That same moment  
Somewhere near Baltimore**

Rachel McCord knew she was in deep shit.

Her latest assignment for the AG special task force had her investigating the threat of nuclear material being smuggled into the U.S. through the port of Baltimore. The nuclear material angle had been a bust the tip had to be investigated, but it was simply bad intel from a little fish trying to cut a deal. Her investigation had gone from bad to worse quickly anyway, however as she tried to extricate herself from the situation.

As it turns out, the Russian mob, on general principal, takes a dim view of federal agents poking around their human trafficking and prostitution rings. Hence her current predicament.

No matter how McCord looked at it, her immediate future looked bleak. This situation couldn't get any worse actually from her perspective, considering she was bound hand and foot with her own zip ties in the back seat of her car inside a weighted shipping container sinking into the Atlantic Ocean. Most likely in international waters, if she were to hazard a guess.

She began to look back on the last decade or so and wondered where her life had gone wrong as the oxygen slowly began to run out. (leading her to wonder just how long she'd been in the container for that to be the case) Maybe she'd let this job consume her life for a little too long. Maybe her former protege, Kate Beckett had the right idea after all... find a good man who would have her back no matter what and settle down. Or maybe while she was looking for _"Mr. Right"_, at least have a lot of fun with a _"Mr. Right Now"_ or two.

She wondered idly if anyone aside from her mother would even remember her name after this death ride was over and she was interrogating Saint Peter. The kind of thoughts she'd heard that one typically has right before the end.

As she slipped into unconsciousness, her body was bathed in blue light and she disappeared seconds before the container reached crush depth and imploded.

* * *

**Two Months Later  
80 miles off the coast of Delaware**

The United States Coast Guard Cutter _Sailfish_ would have missed the tiny blue dinghy had it not been coasting along at a leisurely four knots outside of it's usual patrol route to map the currents of the coastal waters near Delaware. The captain gave orders to change course to investigate and the Marine Protector Class cutter surged to life, her small crew on full alert. Her powerful twin diesels came fully online and she heeled over in a wide turn to starboard. Her two .50 Cal machine gun mounts manned and ready as the search lights snapped on.

The captain exuded cool professional authority as he spoke through the loud hailer.

"Small craft this is the United States Coast Guard Cutter _Sailfish_. Please respond if you are in distress or need assistance."

There was no response, but when their lights swept over the small boat as they closed the range the men standing watch on the bow could see the shape of a man lying face up inside. A Zodiac was dispatched to retrieve him and secure the boat.

"Hey! Isn't that Richard Castle, the author who went missing?" a young ensign exclaimed as they came alongside, "my sister loves his books!"

"From what I hear he faked his kidnapping to get out of his wedding to Nikki Heat." one of the boat crew replied.

"I don't know anything about that, guys but wherever he's been the last two months it wasn't someplace nice. He looks thin...sick thin."

The medic got on her radio moments later.

"Boarding party to Sailfish, we have secured the small craft and have a single Caucasian male aboard, approximately 40 to 45 years of age, unconscious and unresponsive, preliminary examination indicates signs of exposure and malnutrition, subject tentatively identified as Richard Castle. Recommend immediate airlift to Cedar Sinai in New York."

For the first time, the medic noticed the bullet holes in the side of the boat.

"Captain, better contact the FBI en route, I believe there are definite signs of foul play."

* * *

**Washington DC**

Rachael McCord woke up in a hospital room with no idea how she had come to be there. She remembered waking up bound in the back seat of her car, of losing consciousness, then nothing after that.

Only the distinct impression that she should be dead.

Only she wasn't.

She had no idea what day or time it was, only that the room she was in was dimly lit with the privacy curtain drawn around. When she raised her hands to her hair, there weren't any ligature marks on her wrists, and she knew that she must have struggled at some point, that they must have dug in, but there was nothing. She tugged on the blanket covering her and didn't see any on her ankles either.

Only that she'd had some really strange dreams about Kate Beckett's fiancee in a red superhero costume.

"Sheesh McCord," she whispered to herself, "you that hard up that you're dreaming about Beckett's fiancee now? You really need to get laid more often."

Deep down she knew there was more to it. Should feel the pull to know where he was. To find him. As if her priorities had shifted. A single thought echoing in her brain.

Montreal. There was something absolutely important there. She had to make certain to get Richard Castle to Montreal.

A commotion outside the perimeter of the privacy curtain drew closer, so McCord drew the blankets back over herself to protect her modesty, before the curtain drew open to reveal her boss, Carlos Villante, Director of the AG special task force. Though he flawlessly schooled his features like always, she could see the war between concern and suspicion going on behind his eyes. Though it felt like she had lost consciousness in that shipping container yesterday, for the first time she began to wonder just how long she had actually been gone.

"You gave us a hell of a scare the last couple of months, Agent McCord." He stated flatly.

"M-months, sir?" McCord stammered. _Had it really been that long? _

"Two months to be exact." Villante supplied before asking, "Where the hell were you? We had multiple unconfirmed sightings of you along with a couple seconds of camera footage shortly after you disappeared, then it was like the earth just swallowed you whole."

McCord blanched visibly, the closest thing Villante had ever seen to an emotional reaction from her in the ten years she had been with the unit.

"I... I don't know, sir." She responded woodenly. "last thing I remember is being trussed up in the back of my car in a shipping container before everything went dark...next thing I know... I'm waking up here."

"You were listed as missing and presumed dead, Agent McCord. I had no choice but to fill your position, so there's no vacancies in the task force." Villante stated, "To be brutally honest. even if that weren't the case, I can't take the risk that you've been compromised."

McCord lowered her head, even though she understood his position, it hurt to hear. Unlike Beckett she'd worked her ass off as a federal agent to be here. Now she was considered _"damaged goods"_, to be pawned off on any field office that would take her until she could prove herself all over again.

After breaking that bit of bad news and noting her reaction, Villante softened a little.

"You have two months of back pay plus overtime coming, not to mention hazard pay and nearly five years of vacation days accrued. My suggestion? Take some time. I'll see what I can do to get you a decent posting under the circumstances, one commensurate with your abilities."

Villante paused for a moment, during which it seemed he was unsure what to say next.

"Rachel. For what it's worth... I really am sorry it crumbled this way."

"Me too, sir." she whispered, suddenly understanding how Beckett had felt last year when she'd fired her. Though inexplicably, she was not nearly as sorry as she thought she should be, all things considered.

Rather chillingly, a single thought echoed in her brain in an older man's voice she didn't recognize.

_"Make sure Richard Castle goes to Montreal."_

* * *

_****Author's Note** For all of my loyal readers eagerly awaiting updates on my other stories. I offer my sincere condolences for the delay. This isn't my fault! Somebody who shall remain nameless **cough******AlwaysCastle47 *cough* put this plot bunny in my head and I could not get it out. It will be brief ...no more than five chapters if I can help it. I will try to work on my other stories too in the meantime.**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

* * *

"_Just like the light of new day,  
It hit me from out of the blue"  
_"Believe It Or Not" Joey Scarbury

* * *

**Montreal Global Bank  
Two weeks later**

The bank manager slid a key across the desk, his smile a professional mask meant to disguise his nervousness over the fact that he knew precisely who Richard Castle was, and was sworn not to reveal that knowledge, by the very man now sitting across from him, with the young redhead at his side.

"There you go, Mr. Castle. Box 115."

"Thank you." Castle replied, then couldn't help but ask, "And, may I ask you something? Do I look familiar to you?

There's a pause. The silence entirely too long and uncomfortable to be coincidence. "Uh, no. I don't believe so. Have we ever met?"

Castle could read the man's body language, he knew a lie when he saw it. But he kept his suspicions to himself. Kate had been right about one thing, he's a lot more careful with Alexis within his peripheral vision. He couldn't let his quest for answers put his baby girl at risk. She'd been in enough danger for his liking the last few years.

"I guess not. My mistake." Rick held up the new key to illustrate his point, "Is it possible to access this box today?"

"Of course, Mr. Castle." He said then waved over the guard at the door, "Would you please take Mr. Castle back to access his safe deposit box?"

"Follow me, sir." The guard offered politely, indicating to Rick and Alexis in the direction of the door and held it open for them. Rick smiled his best book signing grin and followed with Alexis trailing behind.

After they left, the manager sighed uneasily and picked up his phone, dialing a number from memory.

* * *

Rachael McCord watched from across the street as Richard Castle left the bank with his daughter in tow. She'd tailed them from the airport and watched them go into the bank manager's office. She'd played along when the Manager called her moments later after the security guard had escorted them out. Even managed to sound unsurprised when he asked if she wanted to open hers as well, producing the key (which had been sewn into her clothes) from her purse without missing a beat.

There was a memory card in an envelope resting on top of a smooth black metallic box in hers. She'd played it on her laptop across the street in a coffee shop while waiting for the Castles to come out.

Hers had two video files on it. One from herself, detailing how badly things had gone wrong over her two missing months. The second was from Richard Castle, begging her that if they couldn't walk away and do nothing with the contents of the shiny black metallic box. Let the contents dissolve into nothing. If they tried again to use the gift within that box responsibly, she was never, ever to reveal to him why he wanted his memory wiped clean, no matter what.

She had to admit, in spite of her first impression of the man, Kate Beckett's fiancee was remarkably self-aware. He understood himself and his motivations far better than most men she had ever met. Better, she was sure, than even her former protege suspected.

It was like a switch had been flipped.

She suddenly remembered everything, as if a logjam in her mind had been released, revealing the litany of her previous failure. Someone had wanted her to remember, set a trigger for those memories to be revealed. _A punitive measure, perhaps?_ An abject lesson to remind her of the cost of abusing the gift they had been given. She could not be sure. She knew nothing of the beings who set them on this path, neither of them did..

To say this sudden epiphany was a shock would have been a massive understatement. Richard Castle had trusted her judgment in how to use the power within that shiny black box almost as much as he trusted Beckett with his heart. What she had done to abuse that trust, was once again free to twist in her guts. The fault for what had gone wrong had not been Castle's... it had been hers, but the sensitive soul he was couldn't live with what her terrible error in judgment had wrought.

There was blood on her hands, and she could not justify it under the veil of national security like she could in the past. This was on her, and there was no making it right. The best she could do was forge ahead and do it right this time, looking at Castle's interactions with his daughter as the two of them crossed the street to find a taxi back to the airport, Rachel understood why he could not accept that outcome and return home whole. Why he would not be able to look that pretty redhead, or Beckett, in the eye with that knowledge.

As this realization dawned on her, only the curtain of her long, curly hair and dark sunglasses kept the single tear from public view as it rolled down her cheek.

There was a third envelope taped to the box. This one addressed to Richard Castle in the writer's own hand. The words _"With great power comes great responsibility"_ written in block letters under his name. She no longer needed to open the envelope, she now recalled exactly what this memory card contained.

She'd helped him record it.

* * *

**12th Precinct  
The following day**

_"Kate, if you're seeing this … well, if you're seeing this, I'm probably dead. I want you to know, I never intended to leave you, not like this, not on our wedding day, but I – it wasn't my choice. I wish I could tell you what's going on, I wish I could explain … but just know that I love you. I've always loved you. Always."_

He watched Kate watch the video. He hadn't looked that haggard since the week after she had been shot. Kate closed her eyes at the end of it, and knew she was holding back tears. He'd sat with Alexis when she'd watched hers back at the loft and she'd curled up in his lap and cried uncontrollably for over an hour. His mother's reaction had been a bit more schooled, but similar. She'd hugged him tight and whispered "Oh, kiddo" into his hair before retiring to her room while he consoled Alexis as best he could.

"The ones to Alexis and my mother were pretty much the same." He said when he finally found his words. He paused for a moment, then whispered desperately, "Kate, what did I do?"

He sounded so much like the lost scared little boy she had seen in holding two years before that it broke Kate's heart. She turned, leaned into him, and caressed his face with her hands..

"I don't know. I don't." Kate whispered softly, "But we'll get to the bottom of this, babe, okay?"

Rick closed his eyes and turned his face into her touch, but before he could find the words to respond, somebody coughed from the doorway, startling them both.

"I might be able to help with that." Rachel McCord stated from the doorway.

Kate recovered first, of course, but Rick wasn't far behind.

"What brings you to New York, Rachel... and how does it involve Castle?" Kate stated sharply, her best interrogation face on. She wanted answers, she'd hunted for months to bring him home, and now that she had proof that he hadn't run out on her, (not that she had ever truly believed that anyway) she wanted answers.

"You know how these things work, Beckett," Rachel responded, her own game face on, "strictly need to know, and since you no longer have a security clearance you don't need to know."

Kate seethed internally, but somehow kept her outward calm. She'd hated that part of the D.C. job nearly as much as the gray areas in which she had been forced to operate. Secrets had nearly destroyed the relationship between herself and Rick leading up to her taking that job, the nature of which had then required her to keep even more.

She hated the thought that Rachel would be the one to help Rick find the answers he sought, instead of the two of them figuring it out together, that she might never know the whole story. If she was truly being honest with herself, however, the only question she had really needed the answer to, Rick had given her in that video message. But if Rachel McCord could help Rick find the peace of mind he so desperately needed, she would not allow herself to be the one to take away this chance for him to find answers and put this behind him. She loved him too much for that.

But if Rachel finished her investigation and left Rick with nothing, if she made things worse for him, then God as her witness, there would be a very unpleasant reckoning.

* * *

Richard Castle was thrown for a loop after watching the video of himself. Both the one he'd made for Rachel, and the one he'd made for himself. He'd fantasized about the whole superhero thing but the reality of it was a big responsibility, and the suit would only work for him. So either he stood up and took the mantle or their would be nobody.

McCord was straight with him about being abducted at the same time he was. Rick's head was spinning, He'd been abducted by aliens who had wanted to turn him into what amounted to a superhero, with a secret agent sidekick no less! Just yesterday if he'd ever suggested such a thing (and he had more than once) Kate would have rolled her eyes at him and told him to find a better theory. All that was needed was the CIA and troop of Ninja Assassins to become involved and it would be all of his crazy theories in one small black box.

When he touched the symbol at the top and the box slid open revealing the suit, however, he was overwhelmed by a deep sense of dread.

All of this felt familiar somehow. And not in a good way.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three  
Three Weeks Later**

* * *

"_And I think it's gonna be a long long time  
Till touch down brings me round again to find  
I'm not the man they think I am at home  
Oh no, no, no, I'm a rocket man  
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone"_

Elton John: "Rocket Man"

* * *

_Castle had run as fast as his super strength made him able. He'd run so far at speeds faster than human eyes could track. He'd left McCord's car behind miles ago as he rounded the corner into the foreign, overseas shipyard, arriving to find a shipping container that had been one of the last remaining on the loading dock. He'd memorized the number from the manifest. _

_He ignored the lock and tore the doors clean off the end of the container, the solid carbon steel hinges giving way with a scream of rending metal before he tossed them aside like he would toss an empty paper cup into the recycling. What he saw inside stopped him dead in his tracks and chilled his blood._

_Twenty young women, ranging in ages from thirteen to twenty-one, all of Eastern European descent. Each and every one of them lay sprawled, face up in the container with their throats cut. Their open, sightless eyes staring up at him in both supplication and accusation. The blood was still warm and sticky under his boots._

_The men in charge of the human trafficking ring had escaped, to them these women were loose threads and he had arrived too late to save them. Each of them reminded him of his daughter, the worst case scenario that had haunted his dreams long after her kidnapping last year _

_He screamed his guilt and rage into the night, his voice echoing off the walls of the container._

* * *

Richard Castle snapped bolt upright in bed, a silent scream on his lips.

The images had already scattered, fading from his memory as if banished by an unseen hand, only the voice remained, one that sounded chillingly like Roy Montgomery, echoing in his mind even as the dream faded the images gone completely.

_"This is the price of failure."_

Kate stirred next to him in bed, but didn't wake. Rick remembered how she had come out of the bathroom the night before, after they'd solved their invisible killer case, wearing nothing but her engagement ring. A mix of mischief and desire in her eyes. They'd made love until late into the night, their bodies and limbs intertwined for five blistering rounds of mind blowing sex.

He still had no memory of anything after he'd been run off the road, but it seemed as though his body remembered what it had been without, whom it had ached for those missing two months. The first three rounds had been desperate and rough...first him in control, (he'd taken her against the bedroom wall) then Kate, then him again...two months worth of animal want and need finding passionate physical expression between them at long last.

The last two had been softer, gentler, more loving and affectionate... the primal angry need expended, but their desire for physical intimacy had continued unabated... her whispered pleas for him... The way she cried out his name as she shattered around him and he fell with her before they curled into each other under the covers, sated and back in sync at long last before falling asleep in each other's arms.

The nightmare had torn him from that deep sleep, torn him from the arms of the woman he loved. He needed air. Needed to get his breathing under control before he woke her, she didn't need to see this, he had caused her enough pain, enough hurt the past two months, he didn't want to cause her any more.

Rick slipped out of bed without waking her. From what he had heard from everyone, she had gotten very little sleep the past two months he'd been missing. Esposito had been most descriptive, as if he was trying to see how much hurt he could inflict, as if the man actually believed he could have done this to Kate on purpose. Guilt for the pain he had caused festered in his heart as he took one last look at her before slipping quietly from the room.

The dreams he knew he'd been having lately, he never remembered them after he woke, except for the guilt and pain that radiated from him in waves, followed by the sudden desire to not be in a confined space. They'd started shortly after he'd begun to wear the suit under his clothes at McCord's suggestion. Kate still believed the nightmares were about her, not this awful, horrible thing he was sure he'd done... that the video from himself had said he wanted desperately to forget.

_"Some things are better off not being remembered"_

He couldn't be sure if his word choice on the video had been deliberate, _almost word for word what Kate had told him in the hospital after she'd been shot_, or a Freudian slip. He'd had to bite his tongue more than once to keep from saying those words out loud.

* * *

Kate stirred, roused from her sated slumber to find Rick gone, his side of the bed long since cold. She slipped his shirt on and buttoned three buttons to pad across the floor looking for him. She didn't have to search long. He stood looking out the window in his office at the gathering dawn. She quietly slipped next to him in front of the window, slid an arm around his waist and lay her head on his shoulder, his arm slipped around her almost by reflex.

"Another nightmare, babe?" Kate whispered, her eyes and body language radiating concern.

Rick nodded. "Yeah... just like before...flashes... but it's gone as soon as I wake up...everything but... I don't know what I did Kate..." Rick trailed off.

Kate's heart broke for him. Not being able to remember what happened to him for two months was tearing him up inside, his worst imaginings likely haunting his dreams, playing themselves out in his nightmares. It was hard to believe she might actually know more than he did about his disappearance. She had found that hard to believe at first, it played into the insecurities that had begun to mount during the investigation, that he had done this to get out of their marriage.

Only steadfast assurance from Martha and Alexis that he would never ever do such a horrible thing, not even to Meredith or Gina and especially not to her had kept that fear securely in the box where it belonged. The solace that he would never in a million years have cast his mother and daughter adrift this way was the only other thing in her life that contradicted the lies spoken by the evidence that he'd run. The lie that she knew Esposito still clung to and stubbornly believed.

As bad as remembering every second of her shooting had been for her the summer after her shooting, for Rick, remembering nothing was worse... a hell of his own. She'd waited here at the loft for him even though he'd come home late, having walked the six blocks from Rachel's hotel, his eyes hooded.

He'd shown her the video Rachel had given him when he got home, which he'd obviously made for himself as a reminder to let it go. That he'd seen or done something so terrible that he _wanted _to forget it, wanted it erased from his mind _forever_ even knowing what not remembering it might do to him, chilled her blood.

The first nightmare had been that night.

* * *

**Later That Day**

Kate called in a favor from Jordan Shaw after arriving at work that morning before she sat at her desk to file her back DD5's. She was thankful for that one thing that was still normal between them, his aversion to paperwork. Between this whole thing with McCord and the way Javi glared at him when he thought she wasn't watching, she figured it was best to give Castle some time to breathe.

Avery had called her back earlier that afternoon with the news that Rachel McCord was no longer with the AG Special Task Force.

She'd disappeared on assignment at almost the same time as Castle, had been recovered at the same time almost to the minute... also with no memory of where she'd been for two months. She was currently assigned to the New York City field office with her security clearance under _"administrative review"_. Essentially she had gone from being one of the top clandestine FBI agents in the country to an overqulified documents clerk. She wasn't even permitted out in the field. Kate could sympathize with her situation, but it did not stop her from being pissed off.

Kate's work load might not allow her the opportunity to confront Rachel with this yet, but the time would come to lay her cards on the table.

Though part of her felt sorry for her former training officer, Kate seethed internally at the lie she'd used to get Castle to go with her alone. It was obvious that Rachel believed her disappearance and Rick's were related somehow. She only hoped that Rachel was not so driven to get her name cleared and her job back that she led Rick into something dangerous without her.

Even though it may be the only way for Rick to find any measure of peace.

Regardless, Kate was gonna have words with the woman the next time she saw her. Rachel McCord was in _her _town, messing with the life of _her _man. She and Castle had come too far and had suffered too much for her to allow anything to get in the way of their happy ending.

* * *

_****Author's note** This is about as angsty as this story is gonna get for the time being. I promise. In the next few chapters I'm gonna try to step past Castle coming to terms with the loss of two months of his life and convey more of him geeking out as the cool factor of suddenly having the superpowers of half the Justice League sets in, not to mention his bumbling clumsy attempts to figure out flight. Just had to work my way through the darkness of episodes 1-3 of season 7. That part of canon I don't intend to mess with. **_

_**After watching the pilot of Greatest American Hero again, though I think I have the perfect bad guy in mind. I think you might remember his name... (no it isn't 3XK) Heh Heh.**_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

* * *

_"Breakin' me out of the spell I was in,  
Makin' all of my wishes come true."  
_Believe It Or Not, by Joey Scarbury

* * *

_Previously_

_Though part of her felt sorry for her former training officer, Kate seethed internally at the lie she'd used to get Castle to go with her alone. It was obvious that Rachel believed her disappearance and Rick's were related somehow. She only hoped that Rachel was not so driven to get her name cleared and her job back that she led Rick into something dangerous without her._

_Even though it may be the only way for Rick to find any measure of peace.  
_

_Regardless, Kate was gonna have words with the woman the next time she saw her. Rachel McCord was in her town, messing with the life of her man. She and Castle had come too far and had suffered too much for her to allow anything to get in the way of their happy ending._

* * *

**Diamondback Old West Ranch  
Arizona  
Three weeks later**

Richard Castle and James Grady stood ten paces apart in the saloon, hands hovering over holstered guns, eyes locked on each other as the bartender ducked for cover.

"Well look, Grady, you kill me, that's just another murder you're going to have to answer for." Grady was unimpressed, he had honed his quick draw for years there was no way he was backing down to some city slicker.

"Not if I make it to Mexico first." Grady stated coldly, his fingers twitching over the grip of his Colt Peacemaker.

"I can't let that happen." Castle replied, his hand over his own matching weapon, knowing he held only one advantage over the man in front of him. He knew enough about old west draw-downs that the man would aim for center mass, and with the suit on under his old west attire, Grady might as well be packing a Nerf gun.

Grady laughed, certain that he had the upper hand,

"You've got sand, boy, I'll give you that much. Why don't you just sit on down and have another drink. Come on, son. Think of your wife."

"I am." Castle replied. He'd put the man down if he had to, but only if he thought Kate would be in danger, that black corset outfit she was wearing might be sexy and badass, but it wouldn't stop a bullet.

"Fine. You got a hankering for a residence in the bone orchard, I'll accommodate you." Grady stated firmly, he'd tried to talk the damn fool out of it, but he needed to get this over with before the sheriff arrived.

"Any last words?"

"Yeah." Castle replied, a hint of humor in his tone, "I'm giving this place a scathing review on Yelp."

Grady chuckled humorlessly as they faced off, his hand darting for his six-gun as Castle started to pull his, knowing he won't clear leather before Grady opened fire.

"Castle!" Kate shouted, taking aim with her own Peacemaker. Hers and Grady's weapons fired at exactly the same time. Her shot caught Grady in the hand forcing the single action revolver from his grip, but she was unsure where Grady's shot had gone.

Unbeknownst to Kate, Grady's shot had found its mark, but Castle caught the spent bullet in the palm of his free hand and gave no outward indication that he'd been hit as he let his Colt drop back into his holster.

"Hey!" Castle said innocently, closing his hand around the flattened lead bullet, "I uh, guess you got Ryan's message?"

Kate did not look impressed.

"Castle, I leave you alone for five minutes and you end up in a showdown?" Kate said reproachfully, with a nod and an eye-roll.

"Yeah, well" Castle replied, looking around while the sheriff handcuffed Grady to march him off to jail, "It's a good thing I married the fastest gun from the east."

Kate smiled for his benefit before twirling her six-gun with a flourish and holstering it, unable to resist showing off a little. Her relief at his apparent good health evident in the twinkle of her eyes.

In that moment Kate Beckett Castle was the sexiest Rick had ever seen her. He couldn't wait to get her back to their bunkhouse room so he could peel her out of that tight black outfit and test just how much rough treatment that rickety, shabby excuse for a bed could take.

On their way out to the door to watch Grady's perp walk, who was muttering the whole way to the Sheriff's car how certain he was that he hadn't missed, Castle dropped the spent bullet into a spittoon by the door.

He could get used to this superhero thing.

* * *

The next day, after paying for the broken bed, he had been more than happy to upgrade them to the honeymoon suite on his own dime. He lay in the nice double bed watching her sleep peacefully next to him. Though it wasn't the honeymoon either of them had dreamed of, it had been a lot of fun. He promised himself that he wouldn't waste a second of the four days the boys had given them.

As he watched her sleep, he did feel a twinge of guilt, though. He knew he was keeping things from her and it wasn't sitting well with him, even if it was for her own good.

He'd given his word to McCord not to reveal his change of status from _cop helper_, to _superhero in training_ to Kate, he didn't like it, but he had given his word. He knew her reasoning for this was sound, at least until he had most of the suit's powers figured out, (flight was still eluding him, much to Rachel's chagrin) but he knew he would not be able to keep that promise for much longer.

He knew just enough about how the suit worked to be dangerous... to everyone around him, including Kate and Alexis. She needed to think he was still the same Rick Castle she always knew, at least until he had more control over his powers. Not because he didn't want her to know, but because he was absolutely certain how much danger his superpowers might put her in. He wasn't sure how he knew this, but he did.

He hated the idea of keeping secrets from Kate, especially now that she was his wife. Secrets and lies had almost ended them too many times before they could really get started, and he wasn't sure how long he could keep this super cool new secret identity to himself. Lone Vengeance had nothing on him now, and he was dying to tell her about it. He was sure she would find it every bit as cool as he did... well... after she gave his ear a solid twisting for keeping it from her, and maybe a night or two sleeping on the couch.

Rick was far from stupid.

* * *

**Meanwhile In New York State  
Halfway between Rikers Island and Ossining, NY**

William Bracken, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, sat toward the front of the nearly empty bus, as it crossed the bridge into downstate, NY on its way to Sing Sing Correctional Facility. He had stood stone faced at the trial, his eyes almost never releasing their glare at Detective Beckett as the jurors read their verdict.

Guilty on all counts.

He'd been sentenced to five consecutive life terms for conspiracy to commit first degree murder, plus another fifty years for the two attempts on the life of a police officer. Added on to all of the other criminal charges, he would never see the outside of Sing Sing Correctional Facility until he was carried out feet first. He saw everything he had tried to build crumble as if it had been built upon loose sand.

Beckett may have won this round but this was far from over. He would let her savor her victory for a time, but he was not yet without resources, even in prison resources which would exact his revenge. He didn't care if he spent the rest of his life behind bars as long as he lived long enough to dance on her grave.

He despised her now with an almost childlike hate. Up until this point dealing with her hadn't been personal, any more than having her mother eliminated had been at the time. Letting her have her life hadn't been a problem before, and had allowed Roy Montgomery to think he had some say in her fate, which had kept him in line.

But this time, she had ruined his political ambitions, destroyed something he had been building since before she'd been born with her vendetta, elevating her from a mere annoyance, to someone meriting his full attention. She would come to regret her change in status in his eyes. He would make it his mission in life to destroy her now, but not before he crushed everything she loved.

Starting with the writer and his family.

His angry musings were interrupted without warning, however, as a New York State Trooper car pulled up behind the bus with its lights on. The bus pulled to the side of the road and two troopers stepped up to the door of the bus. One of them tapped on the plexiglass with the butt of a shotgun, and the driver obligingly opened it.

The door had not even finished swinging open when both "troopers" opened fire, killing the driver instantly, then turned their weapons on the guard inside the prisoner compartment. The man was armed only with a nightstick, so he raised his hands and passed over the exit key. He had no chance against two heavily armed men, and he knew it. No sooner had they unlocked the cage door at the front, one of them put a handgun to the guard's head and pulled the trigger twice, splattering his blood and brains on the windows.

The five other inmates hooted and hollered raising their shackles and shouted to be released. Instead of doing so, the two men walked down the aisles and double tapped each one in the head, before the taller one took off his wide brimmed hat and unlocked Bracken's shackles.

"Come with me sir," The man stated calmly.

"What's your name, son?" Bracken asked, "your resemblance to Cole Maddox is uncanny."

"Damian Marks," the man said, "Cedric was my identical twin brother."

Damian offered Bracken a set of winter coveralls and a ski jacket as his partner set fire to the trooper vehicle and an unmarked suburban pulled up. By the time the burning car was reported they would be long gone. Bracken was sure that a private jet flight to a non extradition country was part of the plan, but he had other ideas. A contingency plan of his own to take care of his unfortunate legal status, and have his revenge on Kate Beckett at the same time.

William Bracken smiled genuinely for the first time in nearly a year as the plan formed in his head.

Perhaps he would even give Detective Beckett to Damian... let him do whatever he wanted with her before he killed her. The younger man, it would seem, had a score of his own to settle, his own pound of flesh to exact from her. It was in his eyes.

Damian Marks would make certain that Kate Beckett suffered greatly before he killed her.

"Damian, I have some business to attend to first."

* * *

**_**Author's note** Uh Oh... The plot nthickens. Bracken broken out of prison, Maddox's brother out for revenge... the game is afoot! _**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

* * *

"_Flying away on a wing and a prayer,  
Who could it be?  
Believe it or not, it's just me."  
_Believe It Or Not Joey Scarbury

* * *

_Previously  
_

_William Bracken smiled genuinely for the first time in nearly a year as the plan formed in his head._

_Perhaps he would even give Detective Beckett to Damian... let him do whatever he wanted with her before he killed her. The younger man, it would seem, had a score of his own to settle, his own pound of flesh to exact from her. It was in his eyes. _

_Damian Marks would make certain that Kate Beckett suffered greatly before he killed her._

"_Damian, I have some business to attend to first."_

* * *

Kate had been in a tail-spin since news of William Bracken's escape from custody hit the wire. Especially since it had resulted Rick being banned from helping her at the precinct. That had come as an incredible shock, seeing as how Gates had given her tacit approval to his quasi undercover side investigation. He kept them apprised of his every step, did everything right, but now he was on the outside.

The real killer in their case, former Detective Robert McBride had been on that prison bus too, and now he had two bullets in his head. The D.A. was out for blood, and had gone to the mayor. Just like that, Kate had no partner, and all of a sudden Javi was being less than supportive of her marriage. Even Perlmutter was doing it and it was starting to unnerve her. Ryan was trying to be supportive, God bless him, but she hadn't felt this uncomfortable in the precinct since the morning after her first turn as a hooker decoy in Vice.

She didn't like the sensation. She felt isolated, with no one to turn to and it hurt.

* * *

It had been quiet in the month since the escape, a few open and shut murder cases, but the idea of Bracken on the loose, with access to large amounts of undisclosed money that was untouchable by even the federal government, she knew it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped. Before the cross-hairs were fixed upon her again. It made the bullet scar between her breasts itch.

Every night she felt like a hunted animal as she left the precinct on her way home, followed by the detail that Gates had on her. Her cousin, Sofia had even reported a break-in not long ago, nothing was stolen, but the apartment, especially her old bedroom, had been ransacked. Since then, any night Rick, Alexis or Martha weren't home when she got home, she fretted and worried until they arrived. She'd searched the loft with her gun drawn until she cleared every room more than once since after Christmas, when Castle couldn't bear to keep his banishment from the precinct from her anymore.

This wasn't her, but she didn't know how to get ahead of this situation. Bracken could be anywhere, plotting and scheming against her. After five weeks, he might not even be in the United States anymore, there were a dozen non-extradition countries a man with his resources might be holed up in whilst he plotted his revenge.

* * *

Castle had put the last month to good use practicing with the suit and getting to know its various powers. Invisibility was fun, he might have to try that one the next time he played Laser Tag with Alexis. Yeah it was cheating, but so had freaking her out with that zombie costume before she graduated high school. She was young and quick, he had to keep her challenged somehow.

Stopping bullets he knew about, not to mention strength and speed on the run, though the x-ray vision and heat vision had scared the shit out of him at first.

Agent McCord had been only marginally pleased with his mastery over those powers in such a short time.

Flight, however, continued to elude him. Try as he might, he simply could not seem to find his balance in the air. It took every thing he had just to stay aloft, not to mention plot a stable course.

Landings were the worst, controlled crashes were a better word for it if he was being honest. To date he'd destroyed three billboards, cracked windows on two skyscrapers, bent god knows how many satellite dishes and cell phone towers only to generally end up in a heap nearly everywhere he tried to land. (provided he could stay airborne long enough to _find_ a landing spot) It was a good thing the suit made him nearly invulnerable to harm, or he would be covered in bruises and Kate would start to wonder if he was hanging out with Detective Slaughter again, instead of studying to get his PI license. McCord was supposedly pushing a federal one through for him on her end.

Rick did wonder where McCord suddenly found so much free time. _"Didn't the AG's office have better things for her to do?"_ He often thought to himself. He had little inkling for where she went when she wasn't giving him such a hard time.

McCord always pushed flight every time they met up, to the level of obsession. Again and again and again she pushed him to fly, to let go and let the suit do the work like he did with all the other powers he had since sorted out as nearly second nature. Rachel never let him off the hook, pushed flight every time he simply wanted to beg off and just run everywhere. Her answers were always cryptic and always ended with her angrily admonishing him to hit it again.

The horror that flashed in her eyes whenever he brought_ that_ up was only there for a heartbeat before she buried it, reminding him of the voice from his own nightmares, the only part he could ever remember. _"This is the price of failure."_

* * *

If Richard Castle only knew the drudgery of Rachel McCord's daily seven to four-thirty existence.

The label of being "potentially compromised" had preceded her arrival in New York.

She spent nearly all day cooped up at the desk just outside the records room, filing other agent's paperwork, provided it wasn't anything sensitive. Or even worse, fetching paperwork and files from the records room like she was secretary, not a seasoned field agent. There were one or two senior agents whom she had encountered before her demotion who seemed to revel in making her step and fetch for them. Deep down, she knew this couldn't last forever and the dark bitter side to her longed to make them regret it.

The looks she got when she entered or left the building were the hardest. They ran the gambit from pity to outright suspicion. She wasn't exactly a social butterfly before she joined the FBI but at least before she had a team. Now nobody in the building would even talk to her except the kindly old lady who worked the coffee counter.

She was surprised they still let her keep her credentials and service weapon. A concession she used at every opportunity on the range during her hour lunch break. The range safety officer had gotten used to seeing her every day, to the point where he had the two mags of .40 caliber rounds for her Sig pre-loaded and in hand before she walked in the door at exactly 12:15 and spent forty-five minutes releasing her aggression. When the younger agents watched with undisguised awe as she center punched multiple paper targets with .40 caliber bullets, it was the only time she felt like she had anyone's respect, except for when she was working with Richard Castle.

He was exasperating, irritating and downright annoying at times, but at least_ he_ respected her.

"_I don't know where Beckett found him, but I hope there are still at least a few more like him out there." _she thought idly to herself over a glass of wine alone in her small efficiency apartment. As soon as she got his flight issues sorted out, she might just go looking for a writer of her own. She could definitely use the distraction.

* * *

The United States Marshal's Service had shown up in the precinct. That attempts had been made on Kate's life by the former senator was not lost upon them. Tracking him down was their jurisdiction and their case and for once, she found herself on the outside looking in, the victim, the witness, the hunt for her mother's killer no longer her responsibility.

They spent two hours with Kate grilling her on everything she knew about him. For a man she had spent nearly all of her adult life seeking to take down, she actually knew surprisingly little about him and where he might go on the run, other than possibly wanting her dead.

When she'd asked to join the task force to find him, unsurprisingly they turned her down. For the very reason she had not been able to find him on her own. She was too close to it. Not that she planned to follow their directive to stay out of it. If he was still in New York, her life and the lives of her new family were in jeopardy. She had to talk to Castle.

After making arrangements to meet him by the swings she got a text message from a blocked number.

_Have information on Bracken.  
Met Life Building Top floor  
Come alone_

Castle had been worried when he got the call from Kate, she hadn't told him much, only that she needed to see him at their swings. As it was a school day, the park was empty when he arrived, so he sat down and waited. But Kate didn't show. He began to get worried

* * *

When Kate arrived at the top deck of the Met Life building, she immediately realized something was off.

Her hand went immediately to her sidearm, drawing it as she moved forward into the observation deck. The elevator doors closed behind her and too late, she heard the elevator grind to a halt.

"How good of you to meet with me, Detective." an voice behind her said.

Kate turned and saw a face she never thought she'd see again.

"Maddox! You're dead... it can't be..." Kate stepped back from him, her weapon held in front of her as he advanced on her. She backed away toward the deck only to have him close the distance, her weapon suddenly skittering across the floor.

She pulled back before he could press his advantage. The fist that swept for her sternum meeting empty air, but his second strike struck home, sending her wheezing to the floor. He stalked up on her, dragged her up by her neck to look her in the eye.

"I had thought to take my time with you, like Mr. Bracken wanted, but in my professional opinion you simply aren't worth the trouble."

Struggle as she might, Kate could not break the hold Maddox had on her neck as he tossed her through a break in the safety railing and over the side. She struck a window washer's scaffold two floors down scrabbled for a grip and held on to the rail.

"No one is coming for you, Detective." Damian said without preamble. "My employer saw to it that Mr. Castle was sidelined. Goodbye Detective. Say hello to Cedric on your way to hell."

With that he was gone, and Kate's grip on the floor of the window washing scaffold was slipping.

"Castle!" Kate shouted, knowing there wasn't a chance of anyone coming to rescue her this time.

* * *

"CASTLE!"

He heard Kate's voice plain as day, but it seemed to be miles away. He realized that a different power was at work, because he should not have been able to see her this clearly. He could see her hanging from the building. There was only one way to reach her, he didn't like it, but he had to try.

He ducked into the alley next to the bookstore across the street, stripped to the suit took several long steps and threw himself into the air. He bobbed and weaved, clawing his way skyward as he headed for the building in question, knowing he wasn't moving fast enough, gaining altitude fast enough, as he slowly cleared the artificial canyons of the New York skyline.

Until the moment he saw Kate lose her grip on the railing and his vision went red.

Suddenly he stopped bobbing, stopped weaving and rocketed skyward, reaching the 20th floor then tracked upward in a ballistic trajectory as he arrested Kate's fall ten floors higher and continued upward.

"I've got you, Kate," he whispered in her ear as he cradled her to his chest, stopping in mid flight one knee up, the other pointed straight down as he pirouetted in midair, cape billowing in the wind just like in the Superman cartoons. Kate relaxed in his arms for only a second before she made the near fatal mistake of looking down and then tensed up the panic attack she had managed to hold at bay until now suddenly flaring.

"You've got me?" she asked in a panic as her eyes locked on the New York skyline hundreds of feet below, her arms suddenly gripping his neck tighter, "Who's got you?"

Rick was about to respond with a sheepish grin and a nod when he realized Kate had fainted.

Gripping her more tightly, he turned in the air and headed for the loft, mindful to shift to invisibility on the way.

* * *

_****Author's Note** Dedicating this chapter to my writer friend MsMorg who is a major superhero fan, especially Superman. Just so you know, I was humming the Superman theme from 1979 the whole time I was writing that last part.**_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

* * *

_Previously_

"_You've got me?" Kate asked in a panic as her eyes locked on the New York skyline hundreds of feet below, her arms suddenly gripping his neck tighter, "Who's got you?"_

_Rick was about to respond with a sheepish grin and a nod when he realized Kate had fainted. _

_Gripping her more tightly, he turned in the air and headed for the loft, mindful to shift to invisibility on the way._

* * *

**Castle Loft **

Castle managed to touch down to a skidding halt without incident, a first for him. "I guess McCord was right," he thought to himself, "with the proper motivation I guess I can get it together."

He carried Kate gingerly down to the living room laid her gently on the couch and took off her shoes. In a blur he was gone, then back again with her service weapon, dressed in street clothes. The last thing he wanted was a repeat of the Simmons murder hanging over her head. He was thankful it only took a quick scan with his x-ray vision to find it, so he could be back before she woke. After noting her Glock 19 had not been fired recently, he returned it to her holster which he set on the coffee table.

When Kate's eyes fluttered open he smiled down at her, which she returned with one of her own when her eyes focused on his face.

"Hey" Rick said softly.

"I just had the strangest dream." Kate whispered with a smile, which quickly drained from her face when she remembered where she'd been earlier.

"Wait..I was ... it was a trap...Maddox...then I ...and you?" Kate babbled as the panic from earlier flared.

"Breathe, Kate," Castle whispered, "just breathe for me. In through your nose, nice and slow, with me."

He took her hand and rubbed it soothingly, taking a breath holding it for a four count with her then slowly out through his mouth. They repeated the process together, eyes locked on each other until the anxiety faded her breathing slowed to normal and her control returned.

This wasn't the first time Castle had helped her down from a panic attack, though she had them much less frequently since her torture at the hands of Vulcan Simmons, and not as often as he had feared since his return last summer.

"Something must have really set her off, other than hanging from that roof." Rick thought to himself.

"Maddox," Kate breathed, "it was him... but it wasn't...he fought different."

Rick noted that she hadn't asked or even mentioned how she had come to be on the living room couch in the loft. He decided in his head that he would not lie if she brought it up, but he didn't want to traumatize her any further by bringing it up himself. He knew it would only be a matter of time before her fierce intellect came back to present events. If she remembered every second of her shooting, hanging off the side of a building for the second time in three years wasn't going to hold her back for long.

When she did, which he knew she would eventually, he would tell her everything he knew or remembered, unvarnished and complete. He owed her nothing less.

* * *

It took less time than he thought. Essentially as long as it took to get to the basement parking garage to note that her unit wasn't parked there as it had been the night before. Gates had insisted she drive a vehicle that was more secure than her motorcycle or the subway since Bracken's escape. One her detail could keep tabs on.

When they passed the new Mercedes (she'd insisted on black this time because a silver one brought up too many bad memories for her) and she took in the empty space for her unit next to her Harley Softtail it hit her.

"My car... it's still...how did I ?" Kate stammered, "I lost my grip eighty stories up! You didn't, you couldn't have. Why aren't I...why aren't we both ...dead?"

Even as a writer there were times when words failed him. Sometimes it was the right words that failed him and the wrong ones came out. Sometimes it was because he had none at all, even when he needed them most. This time it was the latter, so he did the only thing he could do. He reached down and grabbed the fender of his Mercedes S class and lifted the front end up over his head one handed.

Kate swooned, but didn't faint this time. She backed up three wobbly steps until her knees collided with the driver's side door of the Ferrari and she gripped the top of the door with both hands. She held herself upright by sheer force of will, her knuckles white as they gripped the door of the Ferrari.

"When...? How?" Was all Kate could stammer out. Her mind was swimming, her vision graying around the edges as she vainly tried to process the only way she was alive, that he had caught her in mid-fall from nearly a hundred stories up, which was clearly an impossibility in her black and white world.

"Apparently a lot more took place during my disappearance than either of us imagined." Rick said, finally finding his words.

Kate's right hand shifted behind her back until her fingers wrapped around the familiar grip of her Glock 19. Her own mind rebelled against the idea that she was actually contemplating drawing her gun on her own husband.

"You're still... you," Kate stammered, Kelly Nieman's penchant for making clones simmering in her head, "aren't you?"

Rick set the car back down and unbuttoned his shirt slowly to reveal the front panel of the suit and its strange blood red symbol bordered by the white circle and black ring,

"Yes, Kate... I'm still me, without this suit, I'm still the man you married, just as human as you are."

"How long have you known." Kate whispered, she tried to keep the accusation out of her voice, but some leeched through anyway.

"Since I met with Agent McCord." Rick whispered, looking so much like a kicked puppy it nearly broke her heart. No matter how good an actor Kelly Nieman might have found, no pretender could pull off Rick's "guilty face" it was something in his eyes, something just for her. As irritated as she was at him for keeping this from her, she also felt strangely relieved. This was definitely him.

"She swore me to secrecy," Rick continued, "hit me with national security, all of it, but I have a feeling there's something she isn't telling me."

Kate relaxed a fraction more. She was well aware how intimidating her former training officer/partner from her brief stint with FBI could be. He wasn't keeping secrets of his own accord, he simply didn't know that the dynamics of their relationship with Rachel McCord had changed.

"You do know she isn't with the AG's task force anymore, right?"

"No, but it doesn't really change much," Rick replied, his fists balled at his sides, he hated being lied to by people he was supposed to trust every bit as much as she did, "I may be the only one who can use the suit, but the instructions to make it work are locked in her head, so the two of us are linked, at least in the short term." Then through gritted teeth, "Though we will definitely be having a conversation later."

"Yeah," Kate replied, she felt better now that they got everything out in the open, "you and me both."

"Do you remember anything?" Kate asked, she really couldn't help herself.

"No," Rick whispered with a slight shiver, "but from the message I left myself, and the nightmares I've been having since, whatever happened likely involved the suit and was bad enough that I wanted it erased from my mind."

Kate watched him crumble emotionally, he looked so guilt ridden that it erased her remaining anger. She leaned in to touch his face. He leaned into her hand, then bowed his head to touch his forehead to hers.

"What did I do, Kate?" he whispered like a scared little boy, "What the hell did I do?"

* * *

** m,.Later that evening**

Damian Marks watched the security video of Kate Beckett and Richard Castle retrieving her Charger from the parking area of the Met Life Building. He could not believe his own eyes.

"How the hell is she still alive?" he hissed out loud, "she was barely hanging on by her fingernails when I left."

"Your brother Cedric found her to be equally hard to kill," William Bracken replied. "he put a sniper round in her chest and threw her off of a building himself a year later. I had two of my best men drug her and ply her with alcohol and she still killed them both and escaped. Detective Beckett can be quite stubborn about staying alive."

"Next time I will be a bit more thorough." Damian stated coldly, "Cedric should have finished the job on that rooftop."

"Killing a cop, even if it was her, was not the mission I had sent him on." Bracken pointed out, "Your brother was a professional and he had other priorities at the time. You, however do not. Next time you two meet, I want you to finish the job. I have a plan in the works that should bring her right to you."

Bracken led Damian to heavily fortified boathouse of the Bracken family mansion. It had been renovated since Hurricane Sandy, and was nearly impregnable. The perfect place for storing things he wanted kept under wraps. He opened a heavy door to reveal Rachel McCord gagged and handcuffed to a chair with a nasty black eye. She was favoring them both with a very angry glare.

"Good, Agent McCord, you're awake," Bracken said as if speaking to an honored guest, not a bound prisoner. "My associate, Mr. Marks has some questions he needs you to answer."

"How did you get your hands on an FBI agent?" Damian asked.

There are still quite a few people in the federal government who owe me favors. Especially in the New York Field Office. If anyone knows who is protecting Beckett, she will. Even if she doesn't talk, leaking the video will bring the good detective right to our doorstep, saving you a lot of effort.

"Don't do too much damage, we need her alive," Bracken whispered, before he turned the video camera on, "she'd make rather poor bait dead."

Damian selected a tool from the table nearby, removed the gag and whispered in McCord's ear, almost kindly, as if he were a therapist, not a torturer, "It is quite all right to scream, there is no shame here."

"Fuck you." McCord spat at him before spitting in his face.

Damian wiped the red tinged spittle from his cheek without so much as changing his expression.

"That's better, Rachel, these conversations are so much more interesting when you show some spirit."

Bracken left, locking the door behind him. As he walked down the hall, the sound of a woman screaming reverberated from the walls.

* * *

Castle woke with a start.

Something wasn't right. He could feel McCord's presence in a way he normally could not. He really hadn't known about the connection with her until this moment, only that she was in extreme pain. She was in danger. He could see it, just as clearly as he could when Kate was hanging from the side of that building today.

He nudged Kate awake, she roused without much urging.

"Kate!"

"What is it Castle?" she muttered, rubbing her eyes.

"McCord is in trouble, I have to do something!"

"How do you know?" Kate asked.

"The same way I knew you were hanging from that building." He whispered as he tugged on the suit. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was the best explanation he could offer. Once the cape was settled over his shoulders, he whispered, "Meet me at the house in the Hamptons, Kate. Move quickly."

Before Kate could speak another word, Castle was gone in a blur of red and black.

* * *

Rick knew his flight was still unstable at best, but carrying Kate had given him an idea, carrying her had helped with his balance, so he grabbed one of the floodlights from the Empire State building on his way by and his flight stabilized almost instantly.

He dropped it as he neared her location, and his wobbly flight patterns returned, and he dropped to the ground. He used his x-ray vision to locate McCord in the boat house and moved for the boat house.

When he was sure he would not be spotted, he charged at the cinder block wall. His first hit dented in the cinder blocks but they held. So he backed up a few more steps and hit it again. This time plowing through.

McCord was slumped over, still bound to the chair barely conscious as he snapped the restraints.

" 'bout time you got here, Castle." she muttered weakly.

"You know me, Rachel, I love to make an entrance." He replied.

He yanked the locked door off its hinges, pulled the two guards inside by their collars and slammed them together, knocking them unconscious. He grabbed one of their radios and then hoisted her up.

"Sorry Rachel, I know this probably hurts, but we need to move." he whispered when she hissed.

"Beckett..." McCord muttered incoherently, "they're after Beckett."

Rick took flight almost as soon as he emerged from the hole he'd made in the wall.

Once they got to his house in the Hamptons and Kate arrived, they would see to Rachel's injuries then come up with a plan to deal with Bracken. If the guy who threw Kate off the roof of the Met Life Building was the same one who tortured Rachel, there was going to be a reckoning.

He was going to make sure of it. This time failure was not an option.

* * *

_****Author's Note** I think this tale has about one more chapter left to it. I need to wrap this up and get back to my other works in progress.**_


End file.
